For instance, video chat platform Gather has imagined a work life where employees’ digital avatars become an extension of their identities as they sit out of a virtual cubicle in a virtual office setting.
Team leaders on this platform can customize workspaces that look like a Pokemon game’s interface, and have employees meet and socialize in virtual settings designed to individual tastes.
Indian startups have, in fact, already started using the Gather platform to design such virtual workspaces.
Social gaming startup IMBR has been using the Gather platform to build its virtual office space, and its adoption so far has been encouraging, says co-founder Prashant Prabhakar.
“We have used the map builder function to design the (virtual) space with dedicated sections for product, growth and engineering teams. Even our interviews and hiring happens now on the platform in a dedicated area,” Prabhakar says.
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Gather may be a bit futuristic when it comes to the hybrid work model but the adoption of co-working spaces as an integral part of the office model is gathering pace.
Software as a Service (SaaS) company Chargebee is running a three-month pilot across six cities, including Noida and Coimbatore, with co-working spaces.
“Employees in these cities will be able to use our portal to book hot desks in coworking spaces near their homes,” R U Srinivas, SVP-people success, Chargebee, told ET.
We will use learnings from the pilot – on employee needs and expectations – to chart out our long-term plan for work models, Srinivas added.
Newer startups, or those born during the Covid-19 pandemic, have begun to adopt a hub model, where certain metros like Bengaluru and Chennai would have meeting hubs for employees to meet often, though they work out of homes.
SaaS buying platform Spendflo, incorporated last year and backed by
, plans to have “hubs” in key cities where employees can meet regularly and collaborate.
For IT firms with large workforces, hybrid work is a godsend to go deep hunting for talent.
will now be able to search for talent in a country where it has little presence in, should it find the relevant talent there, said its corporate vice president Srimathi Shivashankar.
“The people who will offer (these services) could be women returning to work (after career breaks), college grads, or even a school student exceptionally good at Java, designers from a non-STEM background…,” she added.
Office space and talent sourcing experts for Global Capability Centres (GCCs) say the rearrangement of workspaces in a hybrid work scenario is also a reflection of how companies, particularly technology ones, are becoming more accommodative of employee needs.
Vikram Ahuja, founder of Talent500, which works with over 25 GCCs of large multinationals, says tech companies with significant workforces are considering opening offices in places like Thiruvananthapuram, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Kolkata so that employees can work out of these satellite facilities if they are unwilling to get back to tech hubs like Bengaluru.
Kanchana Krishnan, managing director – Chennai, at professional services firm Colliers, said office space absorption in the first quarter this year was energetic at a national level, with key metro such as Chennai registering a three-fold jump.
Flexible workspaces, including co-working spaces, saw a 21% increase year-on-year, as companies realigned their office models to the changing work environment, she added.
